Hey folks. The Liszt Sonata in B Minor is my favorite piece of piano music. And I try to collect every available version of it. I'm never quite sure which is my favorite. There are so many good ones. Which is your favorite recording of it and why.

I am going to try to put up a poll of all the recordings of it that I know of.

I couldn't find your poll to cast my vote, but I would like to give this thread a bump anyway.

I am also a longtime fan of this great piece of music, and so far I have audited the following recordings:

favorites:

- Argerich (mentioned above): a revealing insight into what this piece can unleash in a passionate young woman. A roller-coaster ride at high velocity from start to finish. Highly recommended, but not my absolute favorite.

- Arrau (mentioned above): a very careful study and original interpretation of the piece, without losing too much of the full force and expressiveness that a rendition should carry (good job).

- Zimerman: All technical aspects in full grasp and really sung from the heart. Highly recommended.

- Horowitz 1932: great stuff - the dark is really dark ant the light is really light - a very "Lisztian" performance but poor sound quality in the recording.

- Horowitz 1976: my absolute favorite recording of the piece. This is how I imagine that Liszt himself would have played it - in his dreams!

Horowitz has been criticized for "missing" notes and hitting "wrong" notes and I'm sure that I could mark a few notes in the score that maybe didn't come through in the recording, if I tried. But what I absolutely don't like a pianist to do with this piece is be careful with it. If you are going to play this piece - and I wish I could so God bless you for trying - I don't want you to analyze it and give it to me note for note, I want you to kill it. I want you to sweep me off my feet like Liszt has swept entire audiences from their chairs and lifted them into orgasmic heights. And where Argerich could maybe lift herself to such extremes, Horowitz will lift you. Nobody plays Liszt like Horowitz, in my humble opinion (nobody plays like Horowitz, for that matter).